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War Horse made its UK Premiere in the famous Leicester Square in London on 8th January 2012… a very royal and exciting premiere.

The much anticipated premiere of Steven Spielberg’s new film War Horse was held in aid of the princes’ charity, The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry.

Among those who walked the red carpet were the Duke and Duchessof Cambridge, Spielberg, hundreds of military members along with their family, the cast, renowned author Michael Morpurgo, script writer Richard Curtis and even the star of the film – Joey the horse. Spielberg was very excited to be honoured to have a royal premiere, this being the first one for the Duke and Duchess though having previously had royal premieres with the Queen and the Queen Mother.

The film is an adaptation from Morpurgo’s 1982 novel about a boy named Albert who tries to track down his beloved horse, Joey, who has been shipped to France to serve in the First World War. Morpurgo tells the heartfelt story through Joey’s eyes. It’s a beautiful story that has already been successfully told on stage when it opened at the National Theatre in 2007. Following two understandably sold-out seasons at the NT, War Horse is now playing at the New London Theatre to sold-out crowds. A movie would be the next plausible step taking the realness of this memorable and touching story to the next level.

The play which already transferred to Broadway has won five Tony Awards and the film which was released in North America last month is seen to be a contender for the upcoming Oscars.

Michael Morpurgo was interviewed on the Red Carpet. He asked what took them so long to make the movie and then stated it was just luck really. He mentioned how most books either don’t get published or if they do, they don’t last. His own book sat on the back of shelves unread for 25 years until the National Theatre decided to make a play of it using puppets! This is seen by Spielberg’s producer and voilà, a couple years later War Horse is made into a spectacular movie. Morpurgo said the whole thing was ‘wonderfully ridiculous’. While he hopes it’s a beautiful story about the friendship between a boy and a horse, he doesn’t want the rest to be forgotten… how 10 million soldiers worldwide lost their lives in World War I and nearly as many horses. Whilst Morpurgo loves ‘all of this’, he remains sincerely considerate of the feelings of the families who lost loved ones in war.

War Horse will likely march on for many years to come and continue to touch the hearts of many fans.

Michael Morpurgo said:

What took them so long? It’s lucky, it’s luck. Most books don’t get published, when they get published, they don’t last the course, my book sat on the back of the shelf, not read for 25 years. Then National Theatre thinks they’ll make a play of it with puppets and it’s just this wonderfully iconic production that Spielberg’s producer sees and thinks it’d be a good movie and here we are. The whole thing is ridiculous but wonderfully ridiculous.

Not impressed with the budget. In a sense, it’s terrible that this book could ever be written. That war killed 10 million soldiers worldwide and nearly as many horses killed. In a way all this is lovely but at the end of the day, this is what has to be remembered. As a result there are young men who never became fathers and young men who never became grandfathers. He hopes it’s a beautiful story about a friendship between a boy and a horse but the background is really, really important.

Whilst he loves all of this and all this is great (show & film), he treads softly on the memories of the families who lost people in the war.